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[Seattle Times] 15 years after moving Sonics, now it’s the Thunder asking for publicly funded arena
(www.seattletimes.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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I will never understand why public funds should pay for >50% of the funds for a privately owned sports clubs arena
And tickets are expensive as heck.
So fucking dumb
They shouldn’t, but generally there’s a city somewhere with an idiot mayor that will think it’s beneficial to their city and make an offer so the team moves
They say they want to know the fans will "show up" and support the team
Just ask the owner of the Edmonton oilers. If they can why not.
Honest answer: It’s the same reason they build roads and fix up schools, new stadiums are popular with voters.
Billionaires don't get there by accident
Cause this is America and the country caters more towards the 1% than the 99%
It’s also because no politician actually has the balls to do what is right.
Because the politicians get bonuses when they do these things.
Bill Simmons' best ever take is the "billionaire should pay for their own stadiums" take.
Sounds like those billionaires need to just lay off the avocado toast and fancy coffee, pull theirselves up by their bootstraps, and write that check.
Because billionaires can ask and hold moving the team over the heads of the council and mayor. Making one of the reasons to own a sports team as "real estate scam."
Because the threat of leaving is a big one. Teams have a lot of leverage in these scenarios.
I mean, billionaires are very notably cheap sons of bitches
Is it much different than tax dollars being used to bail out privately owned companies?
Because they promise jobs, increased local business uptake, new and improved restaurant and consumer based infrastructure. You have to look outside the box of “tax loophole” and think about the trickle down economic effects of the publicly funded money. Taxpayers money is helping the area where the stadium will be built. Plus it’s a lot of jobs that can temporarily employ people during the construction. Then you have to feed those workers and those workers will slightly stimulate the local economy during that construction period.
The best is the economic impact studies assume the only 2 options are 1) Taxpayer funded renovation or 2) Relocate the team
Completely ignores 3) Privately funded renovation and 4) Maintain currently perfectly fine facility
That's just it, they're not owned by the billionaires. Billionaires know what a pain in the ass owning commercial real estate is, so it's a lot easier and cheaper to be a tenant.